The Christian Medical College and Hospital was established in 1894 by a British Baptist missionary, Dr. (later, Dame) Edith Brown, who saw the desperate need of medical and nursing care for, and by, women at a time when many of the women were in purdah in North India.
The Institution continued to be run by women, for women and children, until 1947, when the geographic situation of Ludhiana, close to the border created between India and Pakistan, turned the hospital into an accident and emergency centre coping with the desperate stream of seriously injured refugees fleeing from Pakistan to India. From that time men have been patients, students and staff.
From the outset there has been support given from the UK by the London Auxiliary Committee which later became the Ludhiana British Fellowship and is now known as the Friends of Ludhiana.
There are similar support groups in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Timeline
The College education has developed
1894
North India School of Medicine for Christian Women was opened with four girls enrolled.
1895
First Hospital Assistants’ Course started. Academic affiliation with the University of Lahore. Dr. Edith Brown was Principal.
1909
Admission of non-Christian students at the request of Government.
1953
College became co-educational and is upgraded to MBBS standard of Punjab University.
1961
Radiography and radiotherapy training commenced.
1973
Upgrading of School of Nursing to College status accredited by the Punjab University for B.Sc. in Nursing.
1992
Dental College opened.
1999
All Colleges now affiliated to the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences at Faridkot.
2003
Training for ambulance and motorbike paramedics began.
2006
College of Physiotherapy started offering training for BPT qualification.
2007
Institute of Allied Health Sciences established as the umbrella for paramedical vocational diploma courses.
Current
Over the years there has been a shift away from missionary personnel holding key and senior positions within the institution so that now the hospital and colleges are staffed almost exclusively by Indian nationals.